Written English? Odds against you? CALL THE ANGLICIZER.
Our province has many universities and several colleges that turn out graduates in English Literature, TESL, Translation and related fields. (I myself have a minor in English Lit.)
So why do Quebecers still tolerate really bad English, especially on expensive marketing materials, posters, menus, consumer goods, and most irritatingly, on tourism brochures?
One of my favourite shops in the Atwater Market uses NaturSac biodegradable plastic bags. I presume these bags are produced in the hundreds of thousands, at the very least. In French, one side of the bag reads:
Votre magasin se soucie de l’environnement en vous fournissant ce sac écologique dégradable par bioassimilation. (logo: Les Sacs Biodégradables) Ce sac de polyéthylène EPI se dégrade dans les 12 mois environ selon les conditions d’exposition. (logo: Le Reflexe Environnement)
In English, it says:
Your store care about environment by providing you this ecological biodegradable bag by bioaccumulation. (logo: The Biodegradables Bags). This polyéthylène (sic) EPI bag will degrade in about 12 month depending of the exposition condition. (logo: The Environment Reflex)
Where to begin?
At the Des Seigneurs canal locks near my house is a small tourism info centre. I picked up a couple of brochures, as one likes to recommend places for friends to stay in town.
An upscale B&B called ‘Le Terra Nosta’ has an expensively produced brochure with great photography and type, and more than a few lapses into questionable English, noting that they boast “queen size bed,” (what, just the one?) and that they “provide you with bicycles gratuitously.”
I could go on, but suffice to say that other than government publications, it was hard to find a brochure that didn’t have some sort of English error in it.
So here’s the deal: I will read over your English translations and fix them for you. My prices are not unreasonable, and the value to the image of your organization is incalculable — especially if you plan on dealing in global markets or the domestic tourism industry.
Even if your first language is English, if you’re not quite sure that spellcheck didn’t catch a lot of homonym errors, put your mind at rest - email me today.
July 10, 2007 4:44 PM
Comments
Or even more needlessly. like at bedtime or breakfast, getting one chucked at you…
wrote aj on July 10, 2007 5:00 PM
YES. The sheer amount of bad english out there is really quite appalling. So I say YES to the Anglicizer.
“Gratuitous bikes” indeed!
wrote zura on July 11, 2007 9:25 AM
It’s unfortunate, but I’ve even seen it where I work. Most of the time I’m the guy who does the translations. Although it’s my mother tongue, English was my worst subject in school.
But these were obviously done by someone who speaks it as a second language. It’s sad but I’m sure it’s because they don’t want to spend the extra money and/or because they don’t really care whether or not they get English speaking business.
wrote Frank on July 19, 2007 6:08 AM
Frank - let your people know, my prices are not expensive ;)
What puzzles me is, if addressing English-speaking markets (like, um, most of North America?) isn’t important, why bother in the first place?
But if it is important, then it’s worth doing well. I mean, if they’re not paying attention to a big, obvious detail like that, what aren’t they doing behind the scenes?…
wrote aj on July 19, 2007 8:41 AM
i laughed out loud at the ‘gratuitous’ provision of bicycles. i have a mental picture of a B&B owner manically distributing bikes. ‘have a bike! have two! give some to your friends!’
wrote optimuscrime on July 10, 2007 4:53 PM